Do street-based closed circuit television camera systems work?
This is an ongoing question for Dr Dean Wilson and Dr Adam Sutton, who recently completed an Australia-wide review of such systems: Open Street CCTV in Australia. As is typical for researchers, their finding is equivocal: “It depends on the circumstances — and what you are trying to achieve”. The review was funded by an Australian Research Council grant to the University of Melbourne’s Department of Criminology. Monitoring streets with closed circuit television (CCTV) camera systems has become common, particularly for local government authorities. The City of Perth established Australia’s first system in July 1991. Since then, open street systems have been implemented in a further 32 capital city, regional and suburban centres. The Northern Territory is now the only Australian State or Territory without a camera-monitored streetscape or public mall. Australian experience mirrors a ‘surveillance revolution’ that has swept the world in the past decade. In the United Kingdom, CCTV has be
